William H. Frist: “in the past few weeks a number of allegations have been leveled against the Guantanamo Bay detention center. There have…”

“in the past few weeks a number of allegations have been leveled against the Guantanamo Bay detention center. There have been some legitimate questions about the treatment of detainees, which is fair and responsible. The United States is governed by the rule of law. And it is proper for the Congress, in its oversight role, to ask the executive branch about such matters and make sure the interests of our constituents and the Nation are being properly addressed. That being said, in many cases, the allegations that have been made recently have been false, distorted or misreported. Newsweek, as we are all too familiar, erroneously reported that an American guard flushed a Koran down a toilet. That report, which was later withdrawn, resulted in widespread protests and the deaths of several individuals. When the facts came out, we learned that, in the 3 years that Gitmo has been in operation, there have only been 5 cases of ``mishandling'' of the Koran by our military staff. In those few instances where mistakes were made--and people do make mistakes--they were corrected and persons were held accountable. We also learned that the prisoners themselves had abused the Koran 15 times, in some cases, reportedly, to implicate our soldiers in a religious crime. Multiple inquiries have found that the detainees at Guantanamo are being treated in accordance with the Geneva Conventions and U.S. law. They are well fed and well housed.…”